


soon, you'll throw down your disguise

by mixture



Category: Wanted (2008), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: 5 Times, Family Dynamics, Gen, Mental Health Issues, pre-fraternity!wesley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-07
Updated: 2013-02-07
Packaged: 2017-11-28 12:14:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/674286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mixture/pseuds/mixture
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five different times that Charles asks Wesley to be with him, & the one time he came back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	soon, you'll throw down your disguise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Synekdokee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Synekdokee/gifts).



5.  
Charles is the one who finds her in the kitchen, but Wesley is the one who follows after, who sees her as blue and is just as astonished as his twin. They talk while she eats, while she settles down into the form that they will know her best in, the three of them comfortably around the table. 

_We should keep her - she has no one else, you know._

_She’s not a dog, Charlie._

And Charles wrinkles his nose in distaste – less for the obvious truth, and more for the nickname – but Raven pays them no mind as they plot and scheme while she eats. It’s comfortable, no matter what skin she wears, as if a piece of the puzzle has been found and slotted into its proper place.

The corner may be bent, though, and no one comments on that.

\--

As soon as their father dies, it seems like there’s a pick inside of Wesley’s head, pushing against his eye in an attempt to leave his body. Everything sets him off into a corner, though nothing works as well as his brother’s telepathy, something that was explicitly _theirs_. Raven is a wildcard more than ever, her stance on being Charles’ beacon changes as much as her ability, and Wesley feels guilty for forcing their dynamic into such a junction.

It hurts in more ways than one; being unable to be near his brother forces Charles closer to Raven, and Raven has not taken to him as much as Charles assumed. They only share an image; Charles takes a shine to anything that he can grasp, and has a way with words, with conversation that makes people want to listen. Wesley feels like the complete opposite with how he has to strain in order to comprehend the same concepts that seem to come to Charles easily.

He liked his brother because he never had to talk; he’s much more eloquent in his thoughts than he is with his words.

Wesley finds himself moving to another room, in a completely different wing of the house, and it isn’t a stretch to ignore his siblings’ hurt expressions, though Charles wears it for much longer than Raven. It’s a defense, Wesley convinces himself, and everybody else. Charles’ mind is so used to slotting into previously free areas, they can’t risk the contact.

Wesley doesn’t want Charles there, less for feeling replaced and more for preventing pain… particularly when it isn’t his own. He’s given up his title a while ago, Raven fits it better both mentally and physically. She’s their triplet, though she’s in turn promised never to claim their appearance for her own.

They stop asking him to return as soon as he explains himself. Charles had stopped comforting him in the middle of the night, or whenever something was wrong, merely because he couldn’t tell anymore.

It was almost as if nothing had changed.

4.  
Life entices Charles off to Oxford, and he in turn persuades Raven into following along. An adventure of a lifetime, so he says, so Wesley thinks. He makes himself scarce before Charles thinks to ask him as well, setting his sights on a place where he can pretend to be whole.

3.  
And then it’s like Charles and Raven all over again, a best friend and a girlfriend who are too absorbed in their own relationship to properly regard him. He’s used to these situations, though the apartment is nothing like the house he grew up in, and at least they’re standard, run of the mill humans. They have an excuse, though not much of one.

He finds himself retreating to corners, wishing for deep closets. The medicine takes off the edge, but doesn’t go much further, and he finds comfort in the letter that his brother sent:

 _You know you can come visit at any time_ , it reads, _you’re always welcome wherever I am and I love you_.

2.  
It would make him feel better if he could have this call at work, despite Janice’s sadism, almost as if he’s worth something. “Is it conceited to say that I miss looking at you?” and there’s a chuckle, miles away, and he feels himself going through the motions of pretending to be okay.

“I still think that you should come on out. You’ve been in Chicago ever since you moved out there, and you know that you don’t have to worry about anything…”

He makes sure to decline politely. 

1.  
“… _Please_ come home,” it’s desperate in a way that he can tell from years of experience and knowledge, “you don’t even have to come to stay, maybe just a day or two?” 

0.  
(Wesley’s dusty and bleeding and _hurt_ , a beacon, projection. He knows that he’s hard to ignore, but everyone stays out of his path. They allow him to find his brother in the study, to kneel before the wheelchair and crumble into his lap.

He sobs.)

**Author's Note:**

> [Kink meme prompt](http://xmen-firstkink.livejournal.com/8700.html?thread=18812668#t18812668) that I eventually forgot about & found again on my hard drive. Title from Steely Dan's _Third World Man_.
> 
> I also feel that this still needs to be polished/described differently but I should also be sleeping since LOL presentation in front of a hundred fifty people in the morning. eep.


End file.
